A Government Working to Discard the Common Good
Action boréale is an organization that has existed for 24 years and works to protect the boreal forest. In a press release published on March 27 by the organization and signed by several others, President Henri Jacob and Vice-President Richard Desjardins express their concerns about private control, in collaboration with the Legault government and others, over the common good. The text, translated from the original French by TML, appears below.
The
Premier of Quebec, MNA for L'Assomption, and the CAQ government
are
allowing their Super-Minister of the Economy, Innovation and
Energy and
others, Pierre Fitzgibbon, to prioritize the privatization of
public
resources, by ceding rights related to electrical production on
Quebec
territory to
private companies, while the CAQ in no way received a mandate
from the
people during the last elections to cede or partially or totally
privatize the production and distribution of our electrical
energy.
Can Quebec forget the beneficial effects for all of Quebec society of René Lévesque's work to nationalize the production and distribution of electricity by Hydro-Québec? And shouldn't this electricity remain the property of the Quebec people?
In so doing, the Legault government is setting in motion our dispossession of a national common good in favour of private interests.
We believe that the Premier of Quebec is acting undemocratically and against the interests of public institutions and the Quebec people.
Privatization
The Premier of Quebec, the MNA for L'Assomption, and the CAQ government are allowing the Minister of Health, Christian Dubé, to privatize the frontline of the public health system, and are ratifying the construction of private hospitals that will compete with the public system for financial, material and human resources.
This privatization channels resources to private interests, to the detriment of the public health system, the common good of the Quebec people. Did the CAQ receive a mandate in the last election to proceed with such a weakening of Quebec's public health care system?
In so doing, the Legault government is dispossessing us of part of our public network in favour of private interests.
The Premier of Quebec, the MNA for L'Assomption, and the CAQ government are allowing the Minister of the Environment and the Fight Against Climate Change, Benoit Charette, to accept that the regulations allowing a BAPE [Environmental Public Hearings Bureau] to be held will be changed for the benefit of private companies, without consulting the public. This once again creates a major democratic deficit in the context of a global climate crisis whose existence and devastating effects no one can deny any longer.
In so doing, the Legault government is promoting the abusive exploitation of territories rich in biodiversity, despite warnings of the danger of extinction of animal and plant species, in the context of a biodiversity crisis that scientists recognize as the "sixth great extinction of life."
What's more, this government is knowingly allowing public health environmental standards to be flouted in favour of private enterprise. The consequences are obvious: deterioration in the health of the local population, premature deaths and the devitalization of the areas concerned. By acting in this way, the Legault government is confirming our dispossession of part of our territory, our natural heritage and our right to health and safety, for the benefit of private interests.
Dispossession of Our Rights
The Premier of Quebec, MNA for L'Assomption, and the CAQ government are allowing the Minister of Housing, France-Élaine Duranceau, to subject a critical mass of the population to economic shocks in the form of spectacular rent increases, thus creating a social crisis that we would have thought a thing of the past. Once again, the government is endorsing deficient regulations that deprive citizens of affordable housing and of the rights that would protect them from abusive increases and evictions, and from unscrupulous speculators at home and abroad.
By acting in this way, the Legault government is confirming the dispossession of the most disadvantaged individuals and families of an essential right -- the ability to find housing without becoming even poorer, without falling into indignity, without risking homelessness -- all for the benefit of private interests.
The Premier of Quebec, MNA for L'Assomption, and the CAQ government are thus organizing the dispossession of some of our rights (the right to housing, health and security) and of our most vital public institutions (energy and health), essential to helping us face the various problems associated with climate change. Their "governance" has led them to sell off Quebec's resources, reminding us of the darkest hours of our history.
- Faced with these betrayals at the most sensitive levels of our public institutions, faced with the intention to weaken, even dispossess, our public institutions for the benefit of private interests;
- In the face of the government's incompetence in protecting its population from economic abuse;
- Faced with the failure to respect social consensus on the protection of biodiversity, which has the capacity to mitigate the devastating effects of climate change, and the attack on our much-needed public institutions in the face of the various crises (social, economic, climate and biodiversity) in which we are immersed;
- And in the face of the fact that François Legault is accelerating the processes of dispossession of the common good, while perpetuating an economic model that is the cause of most of the current crises;
We consider that the Premier of Quebec is acting undemocratically and against the interests of public institutions and the Quebec people.
And, for all these reasons, as signatories of this letter, we demand the immediate resignation of François Legault.
Other signatories: Jacques Benoit, GMob (Groupe Mobilisation); Michel Jetté, GMob (Groupe Mobilisation); Louise Sabourin, GMob (Groupe Mobilisation); Julie Robillard, Mouvement d'éducation populaire et d'action communautaire du Québec (MÉPACQ); André Bélisle, Association québécoise de lutte contre la pollution atmosphérique (AQLPA); Josée Harnois, Table régionale des organismes volontaires d'éducation populaire (TROVEP) de la Montérégie; Patricia Posadas, Prospérité sans pétrole, Rimouski; Martin Poirier, Annie Landry and Stéphane Poirier.
This article was published in
Volume 54
Number 27 - April 20 2024
Article Link:
https://cpcml.ca/Tmlm2024/Articles/MS54276.HTM
Website: www.cpcml.ca Email: editor@cpcml.ca